前承包商承认替埃塞俄比亚从事间谍活动：外泄绝密情报、认罪协议刑期120至262个月
美国司法部（DOJ）11月3日发布正式公告：53岁的 Abraham Teklu Lemma 已在华盛顿的联邦法院认罪，承认共谋替埃塞俄比亚联邦民主共和国政府从事间谍活动。Lemma 住在马里兰州，曾以信息技术承包商身份先后在国家侦察局、国务院与司法部工作。
Lemma 承认的罪名是共谋向外国政府传递国防情报。按认罪协议，若法院接受，他已同意接受120至262个月监禁的刑期；量刑定于2027年4月14日由资深法官 John D. Bates 主持。
法院文件显示，Lemma 持有绝密级（Top Secret）安全许可。2021年至2023年8月被捕前，他与埃塞俄比亚政府政治、军事与情报部门的多名高级官员合谋，收集并传递了数十份高度机密文件、笔记、材料与照片，密级最高达绝密／敏感分隔信息（TS/SCI）。司法部说明，「绝密」指未经授权披露可合理预期对美国国家安全造成「异常严重损害」的材料。
他传递的高度机密信息多与埃塞俄比亚境内一场武装冲突有关。作案手法包括：手抄机密信息笔记、把纸条夹带出美国政府保密设施；同时利用其信息技术管理员权限，从保密资料库中取出机密信息的电子版本，再带出保密场所。司法部称，他在个别场合还鼓动埃塞俄比亚方面的同谋对与该国政府作战的准军事团体采取直接行动：2021年12月18日，他对一名同谋说「必须把这些人彻底解决，否则埃塞俄比亚永无和平」，同日又在传递更多信息时写道「请派无人机」。
负责国家安全的助理司法部长 John A. Eisenberg 表示，Lemma 利用信息技术管理员权限，把包括绝密信息在内的机密国防信息移出保密设施、传给埃塞俄比亚政府官员，并希望对方用这些信息在地区冲突中瞄准、杀死准军事人员；他说，持证人员对美国负有不容分割的忠诚义务，背叛这一信任者将被依法严惩。哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官 Jeanine Ferris Pirro 表示，Lemma 两年多来利用受信任的职位向外国政府提供高度机密信息，背叛了誓言、同事与国家，危及国家安全。联邦调查局（FBI）反间谍与间谍活动部门助理局长 Roman Rozhavsky 表示，Lemma 已承认向埃塞俄比亚官员提供机密国防信息，对方随后将这些信息用于一场进行中的冲突的军事行动。
此案由 FBI 华盛顿外勤办公室调查；起诉由哥伦比亚特区助理联邦检察官 Tejpal Chawla 与 Adam P. Barry 及司法部国家安全司审判律师 Kathryn DeMarco 负责。
Former Contractor Pleads Guilty to Spying for Ethiopia: Leaked Top Secret Information, Agreed Sentence of 120 to 262 Months
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on November 3 that Abraham Teklu Lemma, 53, of Maryland, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to conspiring to commit espionage on behalf of the government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Lemma was formerly an information technology contractor at the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Lemma pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transmit national defense information to a foreign government. Under the plea agreement, if accepted by the court, he has agreed to be incarcerated for a period of between 120 and 262 months. Sentencing is set for April 14, 2027, before Senior Judge John D. Bates.
According to court documents, Lemma held a Top Secret U.S. security clearance. From 2021 until his arrest in August 2023, he conspired with senior officials in the political, military, and intelligence branches of the Ethiopian government to collect and transmit dozens of highly classified documents, notes, materials, and photographs, classified up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) level. The Department noted that material identified as Top Secret is material whose unauthorized disclosure is reasonably expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.
Much of the highly classified information Lemma shared concerned an armed conflict in Ethiopia. To conceal his conduct, he wrote notes by hand with classified information and hand-carried those notes out of secure U.S. government facilities, and, as an IT administrator, he removed electronic versions of classified information from classified government repositories and then removed the information from the secure facilities where he worked. On some occasions, the Department said, Lemma encouraged his Ethiopian government conspirators to take direct action against paramilitary groups fighting the Ethiopian government: on December 18, 2021, he told one conspirator, 'We have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia,' and later that day, sharing additional information, wrote, 'Please send Dro[nes].'
'Lemma betrayed the United States to an extraordinary degree,' said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg, noting that Lemma exploited his IT administrator access to remove classified national defense information, including Top Secret information, from a secure facility and transmitted it to Ethiopian government officials hoping they would use it to target and kill paramilitary fighters in a regional conflict. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia said Lemma exploited a position of trust for more than two years to provide highly classified U.S. government information to a foreign government, betraying his oath, his colleagues, and his country while jeopardizing national security. Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division said Lemma by his own admission provided classified national defense information to Ethiopian officials, who then used it in military operations during an ongoing conflict.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Washington Field Office. The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tejpal Chawla and Adam P. Barry for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Kathryn DeMarco of the Department of Justice's National Security Division.
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：美国司法部本部大楼（GSM 四级固定图库）。 / Photo: U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building (GSM fixed asset library).
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